COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Congress says Naidu is like the devil quoting scriptures

Shireen in Hyderabad

The Telugu Desam Party and the Congress Wednesday traded charges on the Satrucherla Vijayarama Raju episode.

The TDP accused the Congress of trying to engineer more defections from various parties, while the Congress alleged that TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was raising a hue and cry to hold his flock together.

TDP general secretary S M Lal Jan Basha said the episode has put the Congress in the dock. "We thought Sonia Gandhi is a clean and ideal politician all these days. However, disregarding the Pachmarhi resolution adopted by her party, she has proved to be power hungry. She is trying to come to power through backdoor methods. She has lost her credibility," he said.

Basha contended that the people had not given the mandate to the Congress in the 1998 election to form the government. Within 13 months, the Congress pulled down the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre in a bid to form a government on its own. Even today, the Congress is not sure of forming the government. The Samajwadi Party, Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party have reservations about the Congress.

The TDP general secretary also alleged that the Congress, having engineered Raju's defection, is trying to the "buy" support by spending huge amounts and offering other inducements.

"The horse-trading resorted to by the Congress is a matter of shame to the biggest democracy in the world," he said.

Basha recalled that the Congress resorted to "dirty tricks" in the past also. It had supported Nadendla Bhaskar Rao to topple the then Andhra Pradesh chief minister N T Rama Rao in August 1984. Later in 1991, the TDP patriarch did not field a candidate in the Lok Sabha bye-poll in Nandyal constituency, thereby facilitating the election of then prime minister and "Telugu bidda" P V Narasimha Rao who contested from there. Narasimha Rao had won by an all-time margin of 580,000 votes.

However, Narasimha Rao betrayed NTR by splitting the Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party in March 1992 to garner support of six MPs to save his minority government. The six MPs who had defected at that time first formed a breakaway group of TDPP and later joined the Congress formally.

"Such is the track record of the Congress in backstabbing," Basha said.

The Congress, on the other hand, is laying the blame at the TDP's doorsteps. It is the shabby treatment of Naidu that made Raju leave the party and extend support to the Congress.

Congress spokesman and MLA Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu asserted: "Vijayarama Raju has come on his own. The chief minister's statement that the MP has been purchased by the Congress is an absolute lie. Satrucherla has made it clear that he has decided to support the Congress on his own. He has full faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and the policies and programmes of the Congress."

"The Congress does not have the moneybags as Chandrababu has to engineer any defection. He should not forget that he had mastered the art of herding MLAs, MPs and party functionaries to serve his ends. In 1984, Chandrababu took the party MLAs who were supporting the dethroned chief minister N T Rama Rao to Nandi Hills. When he backstabbed his father-in-law, NTR, in August 1995, Chandrababu took the MLAs to Viceroy Hotel in Hyderabad. In 1992, when the Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party split, he brought three MPs back to TDP fold," Muddukrishnama Naidu recalled.

"It is Chandrababu who usurped power from NTR by weaning away MLAs and MPs with allurements of money and posts. He has no moral right to talk about defections and morality in politics. He is the avineethi chakravarthy (emperor of corruption). He will stoop to any level to ensure that he is in power. Chandrababu's sermon on defection is like the devil quoting the scriptures. When he lures away MLAs, it is a split in the party. When the MPs leave on their own, it is defection. How can it be that?" the Congress spokesman asked.

"We are not luring any MPs to the Congress," he reiterated, "It is left to their conscience."

Tell us what you think of this report